Artificial Grass vs Real Lawn: Honest Pros and Cons

The short answer

Real grass is cheaper to put in, feels better underfoot, and cools your yard on a hot day. Artificial turf costs more on day one, then asks almost nothing of you for the next 10 to 15 years. Neither option is better across the board, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something. We sell turf, so read the case for real grass below and judge for yourself whether we've been fair to it.

Upfront cost: real grass wins day one

There's no contest here. Instant turf rolls of couch, buffalo or kikuyu typically cost $8-20 per m² in Australia, and even with soil preparation and laying, a new living lawn usually lands around $25-50 per m² installed. Seed costs less again if you can wait a season for it to fill in.

Artificial turf is a bigger bill. Budget product with a 15-25mm pile runs roughly $15-30 per m² supply only, mid-range 25-35mm sits around $30-45, and premium 35-45mm goes $40-60, all including GST. Professional installation adds another $30-70 per m² for excavation, base work and laying. Even a DIY job needs $10-20 per m² in crusher dust, weed membrane, joining tape, pins and sand infill before you unroll anything.

So a professionally installed synthetic lawn commonly comes in between $60 and $130 per m² all-in, against $25-50 for the real thing. On a 50m² backyard, that's a gap of a few thousand dollars. The full breakdown is in our artificial turf cost guide, and you can price your exact size with the calculator on any product page.

Running costs over 10 years

Day one is also where real grass stops winning on cost. A living lawn needs water, mowing, fertiliser, weed control and edging. Every year, indefinitely.

Rough annual figures for an average suburban lawn:

• Water: varies by city, tariff and season, but keeping a lawn green through an Australian summer typically adds $100-300 a year to the bill
• Mowing: fuel, blades and servicing if you do it yourself; $45-70 a visit if you pay someone, and couch or kikuyu wants mowing weekly through summer
• Fertiliser, weed and pest control: $50-150 a year done properly
• Repairs: patching dead spots, top-dressing, dethatching every few years

Do your own mowing and you're plausibly spending $300-600 a year. Pay a mowing service fortnightly and it's easily $1,500 or more. Over ten years that's somewhere between $3,000 and $15,000+, depending on how hands-on you are.

Artificial turf's running cost over the same decade: the occasional hose-down, a stiff brush every month or two, and maybe a bag of sand infill top-up. Call it under $50 a year for most yards. Our turf maintenance guide covers the lot, and it's a short read for a reason.

	Real lawn	Artificial turf
Upfront cost (installed)	~$25-50/m²	~$60-130/m²
Running cost per year	$300-1,500+	Under $50
Your time per year	40-80 hours	5-10 hours
Water use	High in summer	Near zero
Feel underfoot	Unbeatable when healthy	Good, not the same
Surface temp in full sun	Stays cool	Runs hot
Lifespan	Indefinite with care	10-15 years (quality product)
During water restrictions	Browns off	Stays green

The time factor

A healthy lawn is a weekly commitment for at least half the year. Mowing and edging take 30-60 minutes a session, then add watering, feeding, spraying and the odd weekend repairing what the dog or the summer did. Call it 40-80 hours a year for a typical block. Turf asks for a few minutes of brushing and leaf clearing here and there.

Plenty of people genuinely enjoy mowing. It's outdoor time, it's satisfying, and the result is immediate. If that's you, the hours are a feature, not a cost. If you're paying someone because you'd rather do anything else on a Saturday, they're a tax.

Water restrictions change the maths

Most Australian capitals now run permanent water-efficiency rules, and lawns are the first thing restricted when drought stages kick in. Perth has had sprinkler rosters for years, and plenty of regional towns have gone through stages where watering a lawn was banned outright.

Warm-season grasses like couch and kikuyu will brown off and mostly bounce back, but you can spend months looking at straw. Turf ignores restrictions completely. If you live somewhere that restricts regularly, this is one of the strongest practical arguments for synthetic.

Look and feel, honestly

Good mid-range and premium turf is convincing from a couple of metres away. Modern products mix blade shapes, blend two or three green tones and add a brown thatch layer, so from the footpath or the deck most visitors won't pick it.

Two honest caveats. Up close and underfoot, you can tell. And nothing beats real grass barefoot in spring; if that feeling matters to you, weight it heavily, because turf never delivers it.

Cheap turf is where the "fake-looking" reputation comes from: shiny, single-tone, and flat in the walkways within a couple of years. Pile height and density decide a lot of this, which is why our pile height guide is worth ten minutes before you buy anything.

Heat: the drawback worth taking seriously

Real grass cools itself by evaporating water, which is why it's often the coolest surface in the yard on a scorcher. Plastic doesn't sweat. In direct summer sun, turf gets noticeably hotter than living grass, and on a 35°C-plus day a full-sun patch can be too hot for bare feet or paw pads.

The fixes are real but worth knowing up front: a quick hose-down cools it fast, shade from a sail or tree mostly solves it, and you can plan barefoot zones on the shaded side of the yard. If your yard is west-facing full sun and the kids play barefoot at 3pm in January, that's a genuine argument for real grass, or for budgeting shade before turf.

The environmental ledger

Neither option gets a clean win. A real lawn drinks thousands of litres over a summer, and fertiliser runoff and petrol mower emissions are part of the package for many households. On the other side, it's alive: it cools the air around your house, supports soil life and takes in some carbon.

Turf is plastic, usually polyethylene and polypropylene. Making it has a manufacturing footprint, and at end of life most old turf in Australia currently goes to landfill, because recycling options exist but aren't widespread yet. In use, though, it needs no water, no chemicals and no mower for a decade or more. You're trading ongoing consumption for one-off production and disposal. In a dry region, that trade favours turf more than it does in a wet one.

Street appeal and resale

Neither surface reliably adds a fixed dollar figure to a sale price. What quality turf adds is consistency: the yard photographs green in July and looks tidy at every inspection, which suits investors, renters and time-poor buyers. Some family buyers specifically want real lawn and will mentally price in ripping turf out, and a cheap, flattened synthetic lawn can actively hurt first impressions. If resale is part of your reasoning, buy quality or don't bother.

How to decide

Pick real grass if you've got full sun and decent soil, you enjoy the upkeep (or happily pay for it), barefoot feel and summer coolness are top priorities, and water restrictions aren't a regular feature where you live.

Pick artificial turf if grass keeps dying in a shaded spot, the area is too small to justify owning a mower, it's an investment property that has to look tidy between tenants, the dog has turned the lawn into a dirt track (our guide to artificial grass for dogs covers that scenario properly), or you know the upkeep just won't happen. A brown, patchy real lawn looks worse than good turf every time.

Handy DIYers can knock a fair chunk off the install cost too. Start with how to lay artificial turf to see what the job actually involves before you commit either way.

Frequently asked questions

Does artificial grass add value to your home?

Not a fixed dollar amount, no. What quality turf reliably adds is presentation: a yard that photographs green year-round and looks tidy at every open home, which appeals to investors and low-maintenance buyers. Some family buyers prefer real lawn, and cheap, flattened turf can genuinely hurt street appeal, so the value case depends on buying decent product and installing it well.

How long does artificial turf last?

Quality turf with UV-stabilised yarn typically lasts 10-15 years outdoors in Australian conditions before fading and flattening make it look tired. Budget product wears faster, often 5-8 years in high-traffic areas. It doesn't fail suddenly; it gradually loses colour and spring, and a proper compacted base plus occasional brushing stretches its life at the top of those ranges.

Is artificial grass too hot to walk on in summer?

In direct sun on a hot day, often yes for bare feet, because synthetic turf runs noticeably hotter than living grass, which cools itself by evaporating water. A quick hose-down drops the surface temperature fast, and turf in shade stays comfortable all day. If barefoot summer use matters, plan shade over the turf or position it where the afternoon sun doesn't hit.

Can you have artificial turf and a real lawn?

Yes, and it's a common setup in Australian yards. Turf goes where real grass struggles, like shaded side strips, dog runs and high-traffic paths, while the real lawn stays in the sunniest, most-used spot for barefoot time. You get permanent green in the dead zones, less area to mow and water, and you keep the feel of real grass where it counts.